Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (ACSEP)

The Asia-Pacific region, despite recent economic success, is home to two thirds of the world’s poor. In 2008, 1.8 billion people in the Asia-Pacific region lived on less than US$2 a day, among whom 947 million lived on less than US$1.25 a day. Besides poverty, other social issues in the Asia-Pacific region include early childhood mortality, children’s and women’s health, basic sanitation and access to clean water, as well as nutrition and education.

At the same time, public awareness of social entrepreneurship and philanthropy are rapidly growing worldwide, particularly in Asia. More significantly, the population of high net worth individuals in Asia-Pacific continues to grow.

A new generation of Asian entrepreneurs, business leaders, and leaders from other sectors are increasingly seeking opportunities to leverage their wealth, contacts, insights, and passion to address pressing social concerns throughout the region.

The vision of the Asia Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (ACSEP) is to advance understanding and impactful practice of social entrepreneurship and philanthropy throughout Asia through basic and applied research and education. Collaborative research efforts focus on a variety of country-specific, regional, and global topics of interest to policy makers, non-profit and for-profit leaders, grant makers, philanthropists, and practitioners. ACSEP’s education efforts include undergraduate and graduate courses, executive education and practical learning experiences.

Giving Opportunities

We seek funding partners who will join us in achieving our vision and realising our mission across Asia. The opportunities are not exhaustive and we are happy to explore your area of interest.

Named In Conversation Speaker Series At ACSEP, we place great value in tapping the expertise and shared experiences of practitioners in the field of social entrepreneurship and philanthropy. Your support will create opportunities for our students and partners to network with and learn from these practitioners.

Named Philanthropic Speaker Series The core research for the centre is in the fast growing and understudied area of philanthropy in Asia. The need is evident in the number of foundations and trusts that are rapidly emerging among high net worth individuals and families. Your support of this programme will help us to sustain research-informed dialogues and conversations that guide strategic philanthropic investments in Asia.

Named Professorships Your gift could go towards a named endowed professorship in the practice of philanthropy or social entrepreneurship, attracting and retaining the most outstanding academics in the field to serve the university and the community. The funding will also enable the named professor to give lectures in Singapore and overseas to promote our centre and its activities, attend conferences and seminars, and purchase materials that advance the study and practice of philanthropy and social entrepreneurship.

Named Visiting Scholars We recognise the critical role that scholar leaders and the best minds play in shaping and crafting the centre’s strategic position for social entrepreneurship and philanthropic research in the region. That is why we are investing our resources to attract the best in the field to join us. Your gift will ensure that we become the benchmark of excellence in basic and applied research in this area.

Named White Papers or Studies At ACSEP, scholarly research and the publication of papers and monographs highlight the Centre’s quality of work and its ability to provide comprehensive and reliable databases enabling effective research. Not only will these studies add value to these fields of human endeavour, they will also provide new ideas for collaboration and further exploration.

Named Grant-Giving Databases Our grant-giving databases form a collection of financial data and profiles of all the private grant-giving foundations, trusts, and family or clan organisations in Singapore. It will ultimately expand to cover Asia as a region. These databases will provide information such as the historical origins of grants and provide insight into the trends and impact of grant making. Your gift will help ensure that our faculty, researchers, students and partners continue to have quick and easy access to comprehensive information.

Named Case Series A case series allows us to document leading examples of projects and organisations in philanthropy and social entrepreneurship. This type of information is useful to practitioners, investors, philanthropists, family business networks and institutions that offer advice and provide wealth management.